Download a tarball snapshot of the Source Repository to bootstrap a Git clone or Subversion checkout. This is a good option if you have a slow or unreliable internet connection. See the Source Snapshots page for more details.

Download a tarball snapshot of just the code as at a given time or release. This is most commonly done if you do not want to develop the code itself but just want to use it for a stable system installation, testing a release, or developing applications outside of the KDE SC.

Note that "Checkout" has a different meaning in Git than it does in Subversion.

KDE Software Modules

Within the KDE Source Repository the code is organized in Projects and Modules. There are also a number of high-level groupings of the Modules.

Qt KDE

KDE Support

The KDE Support group is a set of tools and libraries that have been developed by KDE and that various KDE modules depend upon but are not themselves dependent on the KDE Development Platform. These libraries can thus be used by non-KDE applications without having to rely on KDE as well.

KDE Workspace

The KDE Workspace group (aka Plasma) is defined as those KDE Modules that are needed to run a workspace, such as the Desktop or Netbook. This group is not needed to run a KDE Application under another workspace such as Gnome or Windows.

KDE Applications

The KDE Applications group is defined as those KDE modules built on the KDE Development Platform that are hosted by the KDE infrastructure and are released as part of the regular KDE Release Cycle, i.e. they are part of the KDE SC.

KDE Extragear

The KDE Extragear group is defined as those applications built on the KDE Development Platform that are hosted by the KDE infrastructure and have a stable release but are not part of a KDE Module and are not released as part of the regular KDE Release Cycle, i.e. they are not part of the KDE SC.

KDE Playground

The KDE Playground group is defined as those applications built on the KDE Development Platform that are hosted by the KDE infrastructure but have not yet had a stable release and may never be released.